To set up a Coolant Flow analysis

To set up a Coolant Flow analysis, either follow the order of the buttons on the Home tab of the ribbon UI, or follow the order of the items in the Study Tasks pane. When all the items in the Study Tasks pane have check marks against them, the analysis is ready to launch.

1. Import a model that includes a cooling circuit, or create a cooling circuit using the tools on the Geometry tab.
2. Place the cooling circuit components on a separate layer from the rest of the model such as the part, runner system, and mold, and hide all the layers except those containing cooling circuit components.
3. Check all the cooling circuit components, such as channel, hose, bubbler, baffle, pump, and confirm they have the correct property and dimensions.
   Attention: If you have 3D channels, extract the center lines. The Coolant Flow analysis is only supported for beam elements.
4. Mesh the cooling circuit as beam elements.
   Attention: If you change the diameter of a beam element, you must also change the diameter of the underlying curve, so that when you mesh the mold, later, the correct information is transferred to the mold mesh.
5. Set the coolant inlet on each channel. If the cooling channel has more than one possible outlet, set the coolant outlet too.
6. Click (Home tab > Molding Process Setup tab > Coolant Flow), to select Coolant Flow as the molding process.
7. Click (Home tab > Molding Process Setup tab > Process Settings) and select the Friction formula to use.
8. To include the effect of gravity on the coolant flow, select Simulate gravity effect and confirm the gravity direction with Edit gravity direction.
9. By default the software calculates estimated minor losses. To specify accurate minor losses based on manufacturer data, click the down arrow associated with Minor Loss and select a different option, then click OK to close the dialog.
10. For each element that contributes a minor loss that you want to include, right-click the mesh element, select Properties from the context menu, and enter the Channel roughness, and/or the Loss Coefficient K factor.
11. Select the Coolant Flow tab and select the heat transfer option. Total heat is the most common selection, but Temperature can be used if you want to maintain the mold at a specific temperature.
12. To include pump curve data for your pump, select the pump element, right-click and select Properties from the context menu.
13. Select the Pump data tab and either select a different pump controller, if you have added one to a personal database, or click Edit to change the profile of the default curve, and save it with a new name.
    Note: Changes you make to the current profile are saved to the current study only, and cannot be accessed from a different study. To use the same pump curve across multiple studies, create a new Pump Properties database that you can select.
14. If the fluid used to generate the pump curve is not water, enter the density of the fluid that was used in Reference density.
15. Click OK to close the dialog.
16. Click Start Analysis to run the simulation.

Once you are satisfied with the performance of the cooling circuit, you can mesh the rest of your model, including the part and mold, and run a cool analysis.

Note: Make sure that any diameter changes you make to the channel beam elements are transferred to the underlying curve before you mesh the mold.